Worlds Collide
by wavetail
Summary: What if Melanie, Ian, and Wanderer all knew each other before the invasion? What if they've been lying to everyone all of this time? Sounds terrible, but please give it a shot. Reviews make my day.


**I know that many of you want to kill me. This is my **_**third**_** HOST fanfic and I haven't even finished the other two, let alone updated in a while. But I've had this storyline in the back of my head forever and I just had to write it out. Please forgive me. **

**If you still feel really infuriated, you can send me harassing messages telling me what story to update first, and I'll have a new chap up by Sunday. Deal? But you guys have to tell me what story to update, otherwise I probably won't do it.**

**Sorry again you guys. But I still hope you'll enjoy this one. **

**Jared's POV**

I felt the rage boiling up through me. How could this have happened?

I felt like I wanted to blow the pace up, but I walked silently and swiftly trough the black tunnels, trying to master my temper.

I didn't really know where I was going. I just wanted to get as far away from _that_ room as possible. Our room. Melanie's and mine.

Melanie had always teased me - it brought a horrible lump to my throat to think about Mel - that I was able to walk through the caves like a ghost. No one ever saw or heard me if I didn't want to be seen.

She couldn't have been more right.

I felt invisible. I _wanted_ to be invisible. I avoided the main rooms where the most people were. The few people I did pass in the dark hallways were deep in conversation, and didn't realize I was there. I really was a ghost. No one stopped me. I kept moving through the dusty caves, until I had left the main sections of the long tunnels behind me.

I was heading deeper underground. The air was growing damper and colder. I felt the slope of the rocky floor beneath my feet. I knew I would be a approaching a forked tunnel, both with dead ends. I didn't know why I was coming here. This place was always deserted, because the tunnels had no purpose. There was nothing to be gained from this trip. Just peace. Peace and solitude. It's hard to find that in these caves.

My feet made no sound as they skimmed quickly over the cave floor. Reaching the fork, I decided to stop and rest here. Leaning back against the wall, I allowed all thoughts to wash away from my mind. I didn't let myself think of Melanie or any other problems I had.

But the thoughts and memories came anyway.

Melanie and I have never had a fight. Maybe a heated disagreement once or twice. But never, _never_, a fight in all the years we've known each other. But we had one today. This afternoon. In our room.

I guess the whole problem started a few weeks ago.

Melanie woke up next to me one morning totally freaked out. She had sweat pouring down her face and she was shaking. Thinking it was a nightmare, I tried to comfort her, but she just brushed me off, telling me it was nothing. Mel could always lie to some extent if need be, but I could see it in her eyes that this dream wasn't just "nothing." It was something.

As usual, she wanted to run off and see Wanda as soon as she got up. This never bothers me, but the problem this time was that it wasn't even morning. Wanda and Ian were still probably asleep. I tried to tell Mel this, but she - once again - brushed me off, and ran to go find her sister. I could tell that this wasn't just a friendly visit. Melanie was going to tell Wanda everything she had experienced during her nightmare.

Call me selfish, call me petty, but this made me really jealous of Wanderer. It has ever since Wanderer got herself out of Mel, was given a new body, and Melanie returned to my arms.

Don't get me wrong, I do care a lot about Wanda. I love her, even. I could never repay her for what she did to save Melanie. Even if she was an alien, she belonged with us. I wasn't entirely sure I was lying in the hallway that night when I told Wanderer I loved her all those months ago, when she was still in Mel's body.

But no matter how much I liked the strange and selfless soul, I still felt a little twinge of jealousy every time Melanie ran off to go greet her best friend. Her sister.

Before Mel and I came to the caves, we were all the comfort each other had. We told each other everything, always sharing our secrets and troubles and worries. We constantly relied on the other. But now that Melanie is officially back, it makes me a little sad that I wasn't the number one person that Mel confides in anymore. But I could live with it. All that mattered was that we were all safe and finally together again.

Thinking I was overreacting, I dismissed the issue. Nothing had happened. Mel just had a nightmare. Nothing was going to change.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Sighing, trying to move past the empty feeling in my chest, I remembered how strangely Melanie had started to act after that-

My thoughts were cut off as I heard a whisper of movement whistle through one of the dead end tunnels behind me.

I was immediately on my feet.

The soft noise continued. I then realized it was voices whispering.

Starting forward slowly, I crept into the black tunnel.

Inching forward silently, I blended into the shadows. The closer I got, the whispers formulated into words.

"-can't try? I don't get it," a deep voice said.

My heart beat picked up a little bit. It was Ian.

This immediately made eavesdropping on this conversation a lot more uncomfortable for me.

Ever since Wanderer had gotten a new body, and Melanie had gotten her body back, Ian and I have put forth an effort to become friends again. We both felt a little bad about trying to take Wanda/Melanie for ourselves, even if it wasn't our original intention.

I didn't want to invade Ian's privacy here, have him find out, and then have our entire friendship destroyed. I do like Ian. He became my best friend when Jamie and I had stumbled across these caves years ago. He never pushed me, and tried to respect what I was going through, even if he didn't have any firsthand experience. Ian was a nice guy, and I wanted to respect his personal space.

But, as usual, I kept on listening. My curiosity got the better of me once again.

Ian was speaking again. "She has to stop this. It's not right. Not right for her, and not right for him."

Another voice spoke up this time. Softer, higher pitched. Definitely a girl's tone.

"You can't blame her for everything that's happened, Ian."

I felt my jaw drop.

That voice - that girl's voice - didn't belong to Wanderer.

So Ian was standing in a dark, deserted - or so he thought -, _small_ corridor that no one ever uses having a whispered conversation with some _woman_. What conclusion do you think I'm supposed to draw here?

Maybe nothing was going on. However unlikely it seemed, maybe they were just two friends having a private conversation. Very private.

i wracked my brains to see if I recognized the woman's voice. I came up with nothing. I had never heard this girl before in my life.

Ian spoke up. He sounded slightly impatient, yet caring at the same time. "No, Summer. That's not what I mean. Of course it's not Melanie's fault. But she really needs to come clean and tell Jared. This has gone on for too long. She can't keep hiding stuff like this from him."

I don't know what shocked me more, Ian speaking a girl's name - other than Wanda's - with so much care in his voice, or that my name and Melanie's were both mentioned between Ian and this "Summer" girl.

Who the hell was Summer?

What was Melanie hiding from me?

**Okay. This chap was really short. Sorry. But it's Thanksgiving today. Yay. And I've got to go help cook. If you celebrate this wonderful holiday, and you know what I'm talking about, great. If you don't, then that's fine too. **

**Please leave a review telling me if you like it/hate it/thought it was okayish/or whatever you want to say to me. **

**Happy Holidays everyone! Host rocks my socks. :)**


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